Sat-nav devices are on the road to nowhere as phone apps catch on

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Makers are struggling, with TomTom reporting a 19 per cent fall in salesMike Wilkinson

Murad AhmedTechnology Reporter

Published at 12:01AM, December 9 2011

Satellite navigation systems were the saviour of the lost motorist and the
curse of those who could not fathom how to use them. But it appears that the
popularity of sat-navs is in terminal decline, killed off by machines that
can fit in your pocket, carry the world’s maps, and do much more.

TomTom, the struggling Dutch satellite navigation company, said yesterday that
it was cutting its workforce by 10 per cent, blaming the rise of free
navigation apps that can be installed on smartphones.

TomTom suffered a 19 per cent decline in sales in the third financial quarter
of